10,000+ Canadians petition for lower iPhone 3G rates from Rogers

Section: Apple News, Steve Jobs, iPhone + Communications, Carriers, iPhone

The iPhone is finally making its way to Canada on July 11, 2008 and Canadians aren’t as happy about it as they should be due to voice and data rates from one of the only two carriers that will be offering the new iPhone 3G in Canada, Rogers Communications. On Friday, Rogers announced the details of its voice and data plans for the upcoming iPhone 3G, which struck some would-be customers as unreasonably high and unnecessarily restrictive, especially when compared with those in other countries in which the iPhone 3G will be offered, such as the U.S. and the U.K. Thousands of angry Canadians (10,000 and counting when this was written) have made their feelings about Rogers’ ridiculous rates known on various websites and blogs.

However, the largest protest that has come into effect is a petition (whose original name was unprintable, but has now been renamed to Ruined iPhone). Its stated goal was to gather 10,000 names in the form of a petition by July 11th, which was accompanied by to an open letter to Steve Jobs. By Sunday evening, the petition had already gathered more than 13,000 names, more than its initial goal. The open letter can be found at ruinediphone.com, and is reprinted below.

Dear Steve,

My name is James and I would like to thank you for creating the wonderful iPhone device. We really think that you will change the world with it, just as you changed the world with the iPod. We were so happy to learn that on July 11th, we would finally be able to buy the iPhone and legally use it in Canada.

To our great disappointment, Rogers Communications Inc. has announced VERY unfair rates in comparison to AT&T in the United States and to other authorized wireless service providers around the world. As a result, a consumer movement was born yesterday (June 27th) in protest against these rates.

Nearly 6,000 people have signed an online petition to help make a difference and the list is growing rapidly. In the last 48 hours, the website has had 40,000 unique visitors from around the world supporting Canadian consumers. There are a vast number of Canadians that would take the opportunity to buy an iPhone at $199CAD but these new plans have put it out of reach for many.

I would like to invite you to take a look at all these disappointed people at http://www.ruinediphone.com.

I was going to buy an iPhone for me, my girlfriend and my family.

Now, sadly, I cannot afford the plan.

I hope you can do something Steve; we are loyal customers and trust that you will. We don’t want to lose faith in Apple.

Thank you,
James Hallen

What exactly is wrong with Rogers’ iPhone 3G rate plan? Firstly, it comes with a mandatory 3-year contract, such as with AT&T in the United States. Many other carriers in other countries offer a lower mandatory contract, such as in the U.K. where carrier O2 offers an 18-month contract and throws in the iPhone for free. Although both AT&T and Rogers offer calling, data and text messaging for $75 a month, Rogers gives Canadians a third less calling time, half as many text messages, and puts a 750MB cap on 3G data usage for that same price, which also includes steep fees for users who happen to go over their monthly limit.

The most controversial and unreasonable element of Rogers’ rates is the limit it has put on data usage, an element very important for the iPhone as one of its main features is making websurfing and multimedia downloading effortless, activities which can quickly use up a lot of megabytes of data usage. Rogers claims that its top data plan, which is 2GB per month for $115, is enough to view 16,000 webpages, but many users have pointed out that a single Facebook page can account for 1.2 MB of data usage, which reduces potential browsing from 16,000 pages per month to 1,600.

Petitioners are asking Steve Jobs to pressure Rogers into offering a better plan for the iPhone 3G, or to cut a deal with another carrier that will. I urge all Canadian readers to sign the online petition and support your fellow Canadian iPhone fans in the fight against Rogers’ unfair rates. Below, you can view the current rates set by Rogers for the upcoming 3G iPhone:

Via [Fortune]

Full Story » | Written by Patrick Lutz for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »